Spectrography is a well known technique for determining the presence of a given molecule in an area under observation. As each molecule has predetermined absorption and emission spectra, correlating the known positions of its absorption or transmission lines with the obtained spectrogram allows for its detection and tracking in a non-interfering manner. Imaging the area under observation at many wavelengths, including at the wavelength of these absorption or transmission lines, is one way to do imaging spectrography. Devices used for these purposes generally involve a scanning technique based on a Fabry-Perot etalon or Fourier Transform Spectrograph, where each target absorption or transmission band is imaged individually and sequentially. This approach however makes the process inefficient and good signal to noise ratios are difficult to obtain.
There is therefore a need for a more practical camera and imaging technique for molecule detection and monitoring.